Team Mir blog: Assistant coach Ken Hahn reflects on episode No. 7

http://mmajunkie.comAs an MMA coach, I think one of the most important traits to possess is an understanding of human psychology. Each fighter has a unique personality, and tapping into his individual personality in order to extract his best attributes is challenging but a necessary task.

The focus of “TUF8″ episode No. 7 was on Vinny Magalhaes’ upcoming fight with fellow competitor Jules Bruchez. Vinny is an excellent grappler with world-class skills. As an assistant coach for Team Mir, I had plenty of time to observe him training.

Unlike other Team Mir members, such as Krzysztof Soszynski and George Roop, who were very interested in taking advantage of my professional knowledge in striking, Vinny was more interested in working on his grappling skills and ground-and-pound techniques.

As a coach on “TUF,” you want to help each one of your fighters improve, but you have to find a balance between making your services available and knowing when a fighter wants to follow his own routine.

I didn’t spend a lot of time training individually with Vinny. I gave him some pointers, showed him some combinations that would have been effective in his fight with Jules, and we discussed some striking theory, but I didn’t want to make him feel compelled to work with me on the pads. As the episode’s footage showed, he did work some mitts with Frank Mir.
With Vinny spending most of his training time refining his grappling skills, I spent much of my time working with other Team Mir competitors. There is always plenty to teach and learn and with eager students, a lot can be accomplished.

Sometimes fighters that come from A-level gyms are reluctant to absorb new training approaches. Prior to entering the show, Vinny was the resident black belt at Dan Henderson’s school, which is definitely an A-level gym. He may have doubted what Frank Mir and I could offer him. That is not necessarily the case, but that wouldn’t exactly be an unusual scenario when dealing with professional fighters.

Personally, I feel it is beneficial to be open-minded to new training environments, including new coaches. You can always learn something new to add to your own skill set.

Training insight

Heading into the fight, we knew that Jules wanted to keep the fight standing. Vinny rightfully believed that if the fight hit the ground, he would have no problem winning. And From a strategic perspective, we figured it wise to keep Vinny’s jiu-jitsu game hidden from Team Nogueira until the end.

With that in mind, Frank helped Vinny with some stand-up training. Frank’s instruction represented the skills we work on at my gym, Striking Unlimited.

Vinny had certain base combinations that he felt more comfortable with. I recommended that he try to incorporate the rear-handed uppercut into his striking techniques, but he preferred the straight cross because it is a longer range punch that would effectively keep him further away from his opponent.

The accompanying video displays two striking combinations that we introduced to Vinny prior to his fight with Jules. Both fighters stand in an orthodox stance (left leg forward).

In the first combination demonstrated in the video Maurice initiates the offense by delivering a one-three-right low kick combination (“one” is a jab; “three” is a front hook). Larry returns with a one-two combination of his own. Maurice parries the “two” (right cross) with his left hand, steps out 45-degrees, long, to his right and delivers the left middle kick to Larry’s ribs.

The next combination shows Maurice initiating the offense with a one-two-three combination. Larry parries the jab, shields the right cross, and catches the left hook with his right hand. Almost simultaneous to catching the left hook with his right hand, Larry latches onto the rear left side of Maurice’s head with his left hand and delivers an inside left foot sweep to Maurice’s left ankle. Larry will be turning Maurice in a counter-clockwise direction.

Now that Larry has spun Maurice downward and to his left, he finds himself in the perfect position to land a left knee to Maurice’s face. He does this by resetting his stance while sweeping Maurice — his left leg shifts backward so that his right leg is in front. He then fires the left knee to Maurice’s face.

Larry then pushes Maurice’s head slightly away with his left hand and finishes the combination with a downward slicing right elbow to Maurice’s head. Larry will then push Maurice away and reset in his fighting stance.

Both techniques are very effective and like any newly learned combinations, they should be practiced often before they become automatic in an actual fight.

Next week

Check back with MMAjunkie.com next week for more of my insights about my experience as an assistant coach for Team Mir on “TUF8.” We’ll take another look at Team Mir’s training sessions and my thoughts on the next fight selection.

Ken Hahn is the owner and head trainer of Striking Unlimited in Las Vegas. He is also Frank Mir’s head coach and one of his assistant coaches for this season’s offering of “The Ultimate Fighter.” In his weekly “TUF” blog, he will present a trainer’s perspective about this season’s competition. His co-writer, Jacob Regar, is a law school graduate and is the independent lead writer for American Stand Up. He is also a practicing martial artist with a blue belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Hahn’s Team Mir blog runs every Thursday on MMAjunkie.com.

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